A Demographic & Socio-Economic Review of Hemingford Grey Parish
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Cambridgeshire ACRE A Demographic & Socio-Economic Review of Hemingford Grey Parish March 2020 About Cambridgeshire ACRE Cambridgeshire ACRE is an independent charity established in 1924. We are part of a network of 38 Rural Community Councils across England and are a member of ACRE (the national umbrella for RCCs). We are proud to support local communities in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and nearby where appropriate. We put a lot of effort into getting to know our customers so we can understand what they need from us. This ensures we focus on providing products and services that really make a difference to local people as they work in their own communities. As part of our work we provide a Neighbourhood Planning service for local communities. We have developed this service by building on our skills, knowledge and competencies gained in other project areas such as rural affordable housing and community-led planning and by working with local planning consultants to broaden our capacity. Our current partners are: You can find out more about our team and our work from our Neighbourhood Planning Information Leaflet at https://wordpress.com/view/cambsacrenpservice.wordpress.com Page 2 of 28 CONTENTS PAGE A DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC REVIEW OF HEMINGFORD GREY PARISH .......... 4 Key points .................................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6 Hemingford Grey ....................................................................................................................... 6 A Note on Data Sources ............................................................................................................. 8 Demography ............................................................................. ………………………………………………9 Housing Stock ........................................................................................................................... 12 House Prices & Affordability .................................................................................................... 15 Economic Activity ..................................................................................................................... 20 Deprivation .............................................................................................................................. 22 Appendix - Maps ...................................................................................................................... 26 A DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC REVIEW OF HEMINGFORD GREY PARISH Key Points • Hemingford Grey is a large village with a population of about 3,000. It is separated from St Ives, to the north, by the River Great Ouse. • The village retains some key services including a primary school, pub and shop. • The population grew by about 20 per cent in the early 2010s due to the development of the YES estate. However, growth in the previous decade had been much more limited and there are no further plans for significant additional growth. • Hemingford Grey’s population profile is fairly typical of a Cambridgeshire rural community. A shortage of people aged 15-39 is counter-balanced by a higher proportion of people aged 65+. One in three households comprise only people aged 65+. • Health issues are strongly correlated to age. • Owner occupation is the dominant housing tenure accounting for more than eight in ten households. In contrast, there is a relative shortage of rented accommodation, particularly in the affordable housing sector. • The housing stock is also dominated by large detached houses. 36 per cent have four or more bedrooms. The shortage of smaller market housing and social housing in general has implications for low income families seeking to stay in Hemingford Grey. • The housing stock spans several centuries with the core of the village designated as a Conservation Area. • House prices are well above the Huntingdonshire average and possibly a little higher than some of the nearby villages. The entry level price for a 2 bed flat is estimated at £160,000. The entry level price for a 2 bed house is estimated at £260,000. • The rental market is limited. Private rented accommodation tends to be priced above LHA rates. Social rented properties are heavily bid for. There are very few shared ownership properties. • Economic activity rates in Hemingford Grey are suppressed by the elderly age profile. Most of the inactive are retired or looking after family and/or home. • More than half of those that do work are employed in managerial, professional or associate professional roles. • Most people work locally. Those that commute outside of Huntingdonshire are most likely to travel to Cambridge or South Cambridgeshire. • There are a broad range of jobs in and around Hemingford Grey. The most significant sectors are construction, professional, scientific & technical services and accommodation & food services. Most of the jobs are within small businesses. • Deprivation, as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation, is limited in Hemingford Grey. It is most concentrated in LSOA E01018203 which includes the northern and eastern parts of the ‘old village’ and the YES estate. • The parish scores poorly in terms of access to local services. Road traffic accidents on major roads passing through the parish also impact on the Index. • Most working age people receiving DWP benefits have some form of disability. 4 5 Introduction This report has been produced to support the development of the Hemingford Grey Neighbourhood Plan. It pulls together a range of published data to paint a picture of the parish in terms of its demography and housing, local labour market and socio-economic characteristics. The report starts with a Key Points section. A brief description of the parish in terms of its geography and facilities is followed by a note on the geographical boundaries used for data analysis together with a short commentary on the available data sources and their limitations. The analysis is set out under five themes: 1. Demography 2. Housing Stock 3. House Prices & Affordability 4. Economic activity 5. Deprivation Cambridgeshire ACRE undertook a Housing Needs Survey in Hemingford Grey in November 2018. Much of the data (2011 Census of Population) has not been updated since the survey. Therefore, parts of the survey report are reproduced in this Demographic & Socio-Economic Review where appropriate. Where more up to date data is available, such as house price data, this has been used. Also, this report takes a broader look at Hemingford Grey than the Housing Needs Survey and, therefore, a number of additional sources have been used. Hemingford Grey Hemingford Grey is a large village in Huntingdonshire to the north of the A14. The parish boundary extends to the south of the A14 but the village itself is about one mile to the north. The River Great Ouse forms part of the northern boundary to the parish and creates a physical boundary between Hemingford grey and St Ives. The most recent development in the parish, known as the ‘Yes estate’, is situated less than a mile from St Ives town centre but the core of the village retains a distinct ‘village feel’ with a clear rural hinterland surrounding it. Its nearest village neighbours are Hemingford Abbots to the west and Fenstanton to the south east. 6 Map of Hemingford Grey parish boundary Despite the proximity of St Ives and its large range of services, Hemingford Grey does retain some key facilities including a primary school, church, shop (including post office), pub and village hall with adjacent café. Medical services and secondary schooling are accessed in St Ives. This level of facilities is clearly related to the scale of the village. Hemingford Grey has a population of about 3,000 people.1 1 ONS population estimates, 2018 (taken from www.cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/parish-profile)) 7 Hemingford Grey retains a wide range village facilities including a shop and pub Hemingford Stores © Copyright MJ Richardson The Cock, Hemingford Grey © Copyright Stephen McKay and licensed for reuse under this Creative and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Commons Licence Licence A Note on Data Sources A range of published data sources have been used to compile this report. Parish level data is obviously ideal as it matches the Neighbourhood Plan area. However, not all data is published at this geography. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) uses ‘Output Areas’ (OAs) as the building block for its local area data and publishes a range of data at this scale and aggregations of it (known as ‘Super Output Areas’). The average population of an OA is about 300 people. Nine OAs, in aggregate form, are contiguous with the parish boundary. Although these will have similar population levels they vary considerably in terms of geography. Given that only 2011 Census of Population data is available at this geography, and it is nine years old, OAs are not used in this report. Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) are an aggregation of OAs. Three LSOAs cover the entire parish of Hemingford Grey. However, aggregating these creates an area that also includes the villages of Hemingford Abbots and Hilton. This is the geography used for the English Indices of Deprivation and is also the best available fit for the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) which provides the most up to date source